Safety, savings fuel push for driverless trucks

SYDNEY/AMSTERDAM Jan 21 (Reuters) - After decades checking
their rearview mirrors for the threat from rail and air
transport, truckers around the world are facing their latest
rival head-on: driverless trucks.

Already in Australia, the world's most truck-dependent
nation, mining giants such as Rio Tinto are using
remote controlled lorries to shift iron ore around massive
mining pits.

Now the country's road transport companies are modernising
fleets to ensure that when their industry goes autonomous, as
early as the end of the decade, they are ready.

"I don't see this as disruptive necessarily, as much as a
natural evolution," said Sarah Jones, head of road transport
compliance at Toll Holdings, Australia's biggest trucking
company.

Toll, owned by Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd, has
already kitted out many of its 3,000 vehicles with
semi-autonomous gadgetry like lane-change sensors and cruise
control.

It will join other firms in April to watch a driverless
truck trial in the Netherlands, which wants autonomous road
trains sending cargo from Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port,
throughout the continent by 2019.